May Reader Letters: Apple and ERP

After reading "Nostrabarney," Doug Barney's April column concerning IT industry predictions, a reader had this response:

I believe Apple is going to break into the enterprise market despite itself in one major way: via the iPhone and iPad and ERP [enterprise resource planning] software, like that from SAP and Oracle. I work with SAP software, and every event I go to now is talking about bringing the SAP apps onto one of these platforms. Sure, the Android and BlackBerry will continue to compete with ERP integration being written for them, but more of the market share seems to be going to iPhone and iPad. Just follow sapteched on twitter, and you'll see that about every other tweet will be about iPhone and iPad integration with SAP.

I don't believe Apple will be in the enterprise desktop -- at least not in the near future. That's my two cents.

Mark MusserReceived via e-mail

IT StrategiesI just finished reading Doug Barney's column in the March edition of Redmond (Barney's Rubble, "Ask Doug"). I agree with everything Barney wrote. I especially appreciated the point he made about dropping the attitude and getting about mentoring. Too many folks that I run across in my duties as an IT person have an overabundance of arrogance and pride. It's one thing to be confident, but often people feel the need to let everyone know how smart they are. The response from the receivers of that message is pretty universal -- we tune out and disregard.

Barney's article also reiterates something I picked up at a course that I attended at Santa Clara University a few years back called Information Technology Leadership Program. Pete DeLisi, the instructor, made this same point: An IT person needs to understand what the business purpose of the organization is in order to predict what will be asked next. My boss likes to call it the "build it and they will come" method. Of course, the phrase has been borrowed from the "Field of Dreams" movie, but it's an accurate description of the process. We often work on new systems that we can see are needed -- but the business staff doesn't see it yet. So we build the systems and look for some low-hanging fruit to start the operational process on. Then we look for other things, which are perhaps a little more difficult to continue to weave into the business process. At some point a business visionary in the organization sees the connection and adoption comes, hopefully followed by funding to further grow the fledgling system out. This has proven itself out more than once. This also falls loosely into the "Be Strategic" part of Barney's column.

I appreciate Barney's articles whenever I run across them. His approach seems so real world and humble. This is a refreshing attitude in the industry.

Art RobisonOroville, Calif.

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This page is compiled by the editors of Redmond magazine from your letters. Write to us at letters@redmondmag.com and if your letter is printed in the magazine, you'll be entered into a drawing for a free Redmond T-shirt.